Knitting chat

[tamum]

Just thought I would start a thread that can be resurrected when any of us have bits and pieces to share.

NQC, there is a tie pattern in the latest issue of Interweave Knits

For hand-dyed yarn fans, I recently ordered some silk from Curious Yarns that was gorgeous. Highly recommended!

Continental knitting is how people knit in Europe. The end result is the same, but you hold the running yarn in your left hand, essentially. Rather than throwing the yarn over the needle with your right hand, you pick it up with the needle, from the left hand.

Hard to explain, better to see it. I find it much better than English knitting, but then, I had some bad habits with English knitting (I didn't really hold the yarn well), and this let me stop those.

I do hear it's popularity is growing, but who knows.

Things I have learned about knitting today:

1. Montse is a woman's name.

2. Her book is great! Lots and lots and lots of detail and diagrams. Bit heavy, but just so much information.

3. It is possible to knit a tie in a couple of days.

4. But not an attractive or nice tie. Do tie patterns normally call for the long tail of the tie to just be single thickness? Or perhaps maybe they're not normally made of chunky/aran yarn? This tie certainly will keep FIL's neck warm ... if he ever wears it.

5. If I'm crafting for my own entertainment for a gift, I don't care that much about how nice it turns out. (FIL is impossible to buy for, but doesn't seem to realise this, and seems vaguely put out by all possible gifts.)

I love the idea of keeping your FIL's neck warm Did you enjoy making it though?

Glad you like the Montse Stanley book. It's really, really thorough, isn't it? And I like the way she's so opinionated about everything.

I did enjoy making it, although it was a bit rushed (I finished late on Xmas Day, then wrapped it and gave it to him Boxing Day). It was my first tie, my first optional multi-colour project (e.g. one I made up), my first multi-thickness project, and also one where I totally made it up as I went along (accidentally made the 2nd stripe narrower than the first, so kept making them narrower).

DPNs don't annoy me as much now. And the colour change was fine.

And FIL bravely wore it all day, although often wrong way around. I guess people don't necessarily mind crafted stuff as gifts.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with Montse about ribbing + yarn type. She says ribbing doesn't work with non-stretchy yarns. I see her point about cotton ribs, but surely synthetic ribs can be fine, if not as good as wool ones?

I have more knitting chat, even if nobody else does!

Reading has a very scary very old department store called (I think) Jackson's Corner. And they have a big yarn sale on - 10% off everything, but 50% off lots of stuff. I bought a huge bag of Jaeger DK merino, loads of colours, at £1.50 for a 50g ball. So I guess I will start doing some fairisle now. (The department was mostly scary synthetics, but never mind.) They had Jaeger DK Aran at the same price, but not so much of it. And loads of cheap weird synthetics.

Now I just need to get some 3mm DPNs and circulars and so on, and I'm off.

I also made a baby cashmerino hat while on holiday, with a lovely triangle + pleat texture from a rubbish texture book. But the yarn was great to work with, I will give up entirely on the cheap synthetics I bought recently.

Now I'm starting a hat for DS1, using the same baby cashmerino.

It's a soft purple colour, quite fine yarn. I am planning to do cabling. I was trying an all-over cabled pattern with a soft edge (I love the "loop" cast on method from that mad woman's book.) But I decided it looked too much like a girl's hat.

So it will be cabled panels with a ribbed edge. Maybe my favourite ribbing, depending on the maths.

Sorry NQC just saw your plaintive message on another thread- just got back from going out. Yes, out. I remember Jackson's from student days- I am very jealous, I want to get DK merino to do the latest Interweave Knits pattern. Our LYS starts its sale this week so I live in hope.

I got Knitting on the Edge this week, a really useful addition to the Ann Budd book as it gives so many borders and so on to choose from. I have started trying some of mad woman's CO methods, especially as she is so scathing about my standard CO (cheek). Some of them are awfully hard to follow from the book....

I emailed you to ask your advice about Cyprus actually, but may have sent it to the wrong email address- should I try the other one?

Oh, and the hat sounds lovely, what a shame if it's too girly. Could you make it bigger for you?

I frogged the hat. I could tell it just wasn't right. I'll do a ribbed edge + cable panels one instead.

I'm very pleased with my latest baby hat, a very funky triangles + pleats pattern, that makes for a very interesting texture, but is only knits and perls.

Yeah, I can't really follow mad woman's instructions either. But I got loop working, which gives a really nice soft edge. I used it on the new hat, which ended up with a sort of scalloped edge, and works very well. She doesn't seem to say anything about my standard CO, I use the one from SnB, which I think is structurally the same as one of the ones she's ok about.

Re: email. I don't really check hotmail these days. Gmail works ok. The other one is a bit flaky as my laptop died. So gmail is probably best ... I haven't seen an email from you in any of these places, but maybe it showed up just before the laptop death?

(I'm by no means a Cyprus expert, but we did like it there.)

Pity you're not local, re: the DK Merino. I bought 51 balls, I think. Ludicrous, I know, but how often do you see Jaeger wool cheap?

The baby hat sounds wonderful, you're very inventive! My usual (well alright, always) CO method is cable cast on unless specifically told to do something else, but she's very scathing about it. I did work out how to do the one she really recommends, so I will try that next time. Luckily my casting off meets with her approval. I don't know, maybe I'm very unsophisticated but I can't imagine looking at, say, a cabled jumper and thinking "oh that's wonderful- if only they had used a different casting on method it would have been so much better". I can understand objecting on structural grounds, but not aesthetic IYKWIM.

I haven't got your gmail address as far as I can see- have the other one. You couldn't email me could you, and then I'll reply? Thank you

51 balls- I'm impressed

Ah, my normal one is equivalent to the two-strand cast on, I think. If so, the SnB book explains it much better. Seriously, I think some of these diagrams are sign language for rude words or something.

I agree with you, about cast-on not making much aesthetic difference for a jumper. For a hat, however, it does make a difference. It's the brim!

I don't have your address (my laptop blew up, DH will be restoring from backups, once I bother getting a new one), so will CAT you.

Ooh, a knittng thread

I almost always use cable cast on and I think it looks fine. I discovered it myself, and then saw it named as cable cast on.

My main prob at the moment is finding something I want to knit for myself - I don't see the point of making a jumper when you can buy perfectly nice ones for less than the price of the yarn. Hats just don't suit me - I have made a couple recently and I made everyone laugh, including myself.

I have been looking on the web for inspiration and laughs - such as here - and when I have a look through knitting blogs I see some horrors that their creators are posting with pride. I won't post the links here as it is not really fair to take the piss out of them (the site in the link posts solely professionally designed monstrosities which are fair game). But one lady's chunky, full length, bright green with cables wedding dresswas just awful, as was her nasty multi-striped poncho with sleeves....no wonder a lot of people stick to socks.

I have both the Stich n Bitch books but nothing in there really makes me itch for my needles

BTW, I knit contentintal for knit stiches and rib, but English for purling.

tiktok, welcome I know exactly what you mean, I am addicted to knitting blogs for the same sort of reasons. If I am planning to knit something from a well-known magazine I quite often search blogs for pictures so that you can see what it really looks like on normal sized people. I decided against a cardigan called Salt Peanuts having seen some absolute crimes against clothing on display. I know what you mean about the cost, but I just make things for myself by customising existing patterns, or using really lovely yarns and generally making it exactly what I want. I don't like many of the patterns in the SnB books either, but they have great reference chapters. Have you tried magazines like Interweave Knits? (although that's where a lot of the pictures came from in your link!). Or better still, free mags like Knitty ?

Good point about hat brims, NQC. I am resolved to try a different method next time but at the moment I am knitting a bag using this pattern but in silk from Curious Yarns. It only requires 3 stitches to be cast on so it hardly seems worth bothering. And speaking of Curious Yarns, I have always avoided sock knitting but I think I might treat myself to one of these kits with my Christmas money. They are just gorgeous.....

I like knitty.com, tamum, and there are some good ideas there, as well as some weird ones (but weird is ok, too, sometimes, for those that like it!).

I lose interest in anything too much the same - even if it is not that big a project. I am knitting my mum a scarf in a plain ol' k1p1 rib and I am sick of it. It doesn't help that it is scratchy yarn.

I like making things which look different as they grow, not more and more of the same....and yet I want to be able to knit and watch TV without looking at my work for a lot of the time too

Ah. Pretty easy to please then . I know what you mean though. I quite enjoyed doing a denim jumper for me from the Rowan book as it's a bit like a sampler- all knit and purl but once you get in the rhythm not too bad, and it changed as you knit. I like shawls for that reason too, but again you have to be in the swing of the pattern to be able to concentrate on the TV. Have you seen Charlotte's web ? It's another blog-land favourite. I did one in pinky purply colours and am soon starting another in more muted creamy colours. I really enjoyed knitting it because the colours and the shape changed

I didn't even know there were different ways of casting on . I'm obviously a much more novice knitter than I thought!

The good news is that I've sewn in about two thirds of the ends on the multi-coloured cardigan for my dd. It looks fab, but the seams are rather stiff because of all the sewing in. Never mind. It's taken me so long to make, she'll have to wear it for at least 5 years!

I've knitted the baby blanket from the first SnB book. And I think I've used other patterns in there for ideas (shapes and so on). But I don't really knit from patterns, so the whole thing doesn't apply.

And tamum, I'm not inventive, I just have a lot of books of patterns. Actually, the one I got my triangle/pleat pattern from is a bit unreliable, but very dense and cheap, for what it is. I'll try to dig up a link to it.

I mostly (ok, only) make hats, mostly for new babies. I still haven't made myself a hat. Or anything. To be fair, I know that if there were any errors in an item of clothing I made for myself, or a member of my family, to wear, it would drive me bonkers.

tiktok: I've never heard of people changing how they knit for different stitches. How do you knit if it's a block of purl, then a block of knit? Doing purling continental style does sorta suck - some people do it clockwise, then knit into the backs of the stitches on the next row, but I think that's unduly complicated. (And I only know about this, because Barbara Walker whinges about it.)

You might find some textured work pleasant? But then, that's what I'd always recommend as it's what I love. Maybe I'll change my mind after trying more fairisle with my massive bag'o'yarn. (Must buy 3mm needles!) I might try some of the mixed-colour-and-texture patterns in the Walker books, too ...

Oh, and littlefish, there are 19 ways to cast on in the madwoman's book. I think. Not counting various ways of producing the same effect, iyswim.

I am taking the madwoman's word for it, though, as her diagrams are incomprehensible to me at the moment.

Hmm, my annoying pattern book appears to be unavailable everywhere. Here is a link to something about it.

Who is "the madwoman"? Why would you need 19 different ways to cast on?

i have started (prev falalaala in Xmas guise)!

just practising. remembered how to cast on (the only way I know how - (19 ways??!), knit, perl. am now just enjoying making a small square! waiting for amazon to deliver book so I can start something proper. tis fab.

Littlefish, the "madwoman" is actually Montse Stanley who is the queen of knitting. She is sadly dead now, but wrote the Knitter's Handbook which is an absolute treasure trove. We are just being jokily rude about her because she's just soooo opinionated. It's definitely worth getting the book if you ever want to expand your repertoire, although as NQC says her diagrams leave a lot to be desired (like, how can you teach someone a completely new way to cast on with only one picture?). Can we see a picture of your dd's cardigan when you have finished all your darning?

lalaa, that's great that you're enjoying it. Have you decided what to make yet? Something sumptous and comforting I hope.

I'd love to show you a picture when it eventually gets finished tamum - how do I do it?

Lalaa - well done for getting started. What book have you ordered?